Foti Tommaso

Tommaso Foti was born on April 28, 1960, in Piacenza, Italy. In July 1978, he obtained his scientific high school diploma at Liceo Respighi.

Due to family reasons, he entered the workforce early, initially representing one of Italy’s leading agri-food companies, following in his family’s footsteps.

In September 1980, at just 20 years old, he was elected city councilor of Piacenza for the Italian Social Movement, and he was re-elected in every subsequent election until 1994. In January 1994, he participated in the founding of the National Alliance, which he represented in the Piacenza City Council until 2005, consistently being the most voted candidate in the city.

He was elected to Parliament four consecutive times. His first election was in April 1996 for the Piacenza 31 district (People of Freedom list), narrowly defeating political scientist Gianfranco Pasquino by around 330 votes.

Re-elected in 2001 in the same district, in December he became President of the Bicameral Committee for Tax Registry Oversight. He ran for President of the Province of Piacenza, obtaining 48% of the votes in the runoff on June 26, 2004, and remained in the provincial council until June 2011, also being the most voted in the 2009 elections.

In 2006, he was elected deputy for the National Alliance list, achieving the best result in Piacenza (13.34%), and later became Vice President of the Committee on Environment, Territory, and Public Works. Re-elected in April 2008 (People of Freedom list, 35.5% in Piacenza), he became Vice President of the Parliamentary Committee on Simplification in June and, in June 2009, President of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee for Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Spa.

He participated in founding the center-right People of Freedom party in 2009 and, in December 2012, Fratelli d’Italia. He ran in the February 2013 elections but was not elected, despite achieving the sixth-best national result. In the November 2014 Emilia-Romagna Legislative Assembly elections, he won Fratelli d’Italia–National Alliance’s only seat in the region.

In the 2018 general elections, he was elected deputy for Piacenza 14 with 73,599 votes (47.39%) and became Deputy Vice Leader of Fratelli d’Italia in the Chamber of Deputies. In January 2019, the Chamber President, Roberto Fico, appointed him member of the Rules Committee, and in February 2020, he was elected secretary of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on the banking and financial system.

Following the center-right victory in the 2022 general elections, he was re-elected deputy for the sixth time in the Piacenza and western Parma single-member district with 92,699 votes (52.53%). On November 9, he was unanimously elected President of the Fratelli d’Italia Parliamentary Group.

On December 2, 2024, Foti joined Giorgia Meloni’s government as Minister for European Affairs, the South, Cohesion Policies, and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), succeeding Raffaele Fitto, who was appointed European Commissioner.